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Emmanuel Dunand / AFP - Getty Images
Mitt Romney holds a rally at Defiance High School in Defiance, Ohio, on Thursday.
DEFIANCE, Ohio – Under the bright lights of a high school football field here in Northwest Ohio, Mitt Romney's opposition to the 2009 auto bailout reared its head again as a campaign issue that could help decide the result of this critical swing state.
Sen. Rob Portman, introducing Romney, brought up the bailout, telling a crowd of more than 10,000 supporters that "we need to talk about this tonight" in an effort to clear up what he said were dishonest attacks by the president at the last debate.
"First, it was President Obama who actually took GM and Chrysler through bankruptcy. That’s a fact," Portman said. "Second, Mitt Romney did propose government help. He proposed government guarantees for loans. He proposed the government backing up the warranties, and folks, all the independent fact checkers who have looked at this agree: President Obama was wrong."
While on the trail today, GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney accused President Obama's campaign of not having a plan, and ignored questions about Republican Senate candidate Richard Mourdock's controversial remarks on rape. NBC's Peter Alexander reports.
Romney did not mention the bailout explicitly, but did voice his support for the U.S. auto industry, saying he would stand up to China on trade issues that affect auto companies and mentioning reports today that automaker Jeep was considering moving its operations entirely overseas.
"I saw a story today that one of the great manufacturers of this state, Jeep, now owned by the Italians, is thinking of moving all production to China. I will fight for every good job in America. I'm going to fight to make sure trade is fair, and if it’s fair, America will win," Romney said.
Democrats quickly seized on any mention of the auto industry to reinforce Obama's bailout of General Motors and Chrysler, looking to capitalize on an issue they believe is particularly resonant among voters in this corner of Ohio.
"While Barack Obama bet on the American worker and saved the American auto industry and more than one million jobs, Mitt Romney would have just ‘let Detroit go bankrupt.’ Voters in Ohio won’t forget how—at a make or break moment for one of America’s key industries—Mitt Romney would have turned his back and watched GM and Chrysler go under," Obama campaign spokesperson Lis Smith said in a statement.
The Obama campaign also forwarded reporters a statement from a Chrysler spokesperson claiming there were never plans to move assembly lines to China.
“Let’s set the record straight: Jeep has no intention of shifting production of its Jeep models out of North America to China. It’s simply reviewing the opportunities to return Jeep output to China for the world’s largest auto market. U.S. Jeep assembly lines will continue to stay in operation,” Gualberto Ranieri, a spokesman for Chrysler said in the statement posted on the automakers' blog.
Reuters, Getty Images
In the final push in the 2012 presidential election, candidates Mitt Romney and Barack Obama make their last appeals to voters.
Coincidentally, after the Thursday night rally, a group of Detroit newspapers announced they would be endorsing President Obama, shredding Romney for his position in opposition to the bailout.
"It is an unforgivable and unconscionable [sic] position by a man with the audacity to claim himself a son of Detroit. Romney may have grown up here, but he left long ago," the editorial on MLive.com read in part.
All this serves to highlight how the auto bailout legacy continues to be a political minefield for Romney here in the industrial Midwest.
On Friday, Romney will return to safer ground in Iowa where he is scheduled to deliver a speech on the economy, debt and deficits, which could serve as a summation of his views on the election's most important issue as the campaign moves into its final full week.
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This race will not be tight in the end,Obama will win. As for the tax returns and the IRS,bogus as usual !!! It takes years to find out if someone is committing tax fraud,and guess what : The Attorney General is now filing tax fraud charges against Bain and Romney.Also what has come out is these bogus Libya emails,it was reported on CNN all day yesterday and Panetta has now come out explaining what really happened in the hours leading up to the attack-Guess all this is lies because it backs the President ??? The Repubs will stop at nothing to try and steal this election,that's why turn out for Obama has to be huge and his ground game is enormous.
Romnesia Epidemic
Bush First Term:
Bush second term
Obama first term
Romney is despised in Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania, all of the states that are impacted the most by the auto industry. Obama has won this election primarily due to his courage to save the auto industry. All 3 states are clearly Obama wins, big time. Obama also has WI, IA and NV in the bank. It is all about early voting now and Obama has the political machine to bring this election home. BTW there will be very little campaigning on the east coast next week so Virginia is a complete toss up. Mitt is wasting his money and time trying to win in Ohio. What a fool.
Actually I live in one of those states and other than a few bumper stickers for Obama every sign I see is for Romney so I will not take anything you just stated as fact markin.
Check out the polling and perhaps you should get out of your gated community, country club neighborhood to where real middle class and lower middle class people live.
Romney saying he'll win Ohio....does he already know the results?
What about Florida?
Well, his son owns voting machines in Ohio, so maybe he has some insider information.....
Just the auto bailout is haunting Romney??
How about being pro-choice, anti-gun, pro-gay rights and inventing Obamacare???
Everything this guy did and said up to 3 seconds ago can come back to haunt him.
But will he stand up to his buddies at Bain, where their move of Sensata Technologies, an automobile sensor manufacturer with almost $500 million in profits last year, to CHINA will net Willard a nice profit. I am certain he has maintained his relationships at Bain. But will he stand up to them?
Google it: "Sensata" is all you need.
Who called Romney an "Etch-a-Sketch"???-----Santorum
Who called Romney a "Vulture Capitalist"???-----Perry
Who called Romney/Ryan's voucher plan "Social Engineering"???------Gingrich
Who "invented" Obamacare???----Romney
You don't need to listen to the democrats, you can listen to the republicans
I wish someone could snap their fingers and make truth spread all over America today and the next 12 days. Truth. The bailout is not the problem with Romney. Romney is the problem. I am not even going to say what he should be saying because tomorrow he might be saying it. He is man with no character and it is proven he will say and do anything. Could I be wrong. Well isn't it funny that the way I think is the way Colin Powell expressed yesterday. Exactly the same. And I have heard many others stating it exactly the same way. This election has been contaminated for years by lowclass citizens who operate off hatred and by doing that they send countless vicious, malicious lies over the internet and on tv and radio. I have seen plenty of them. And the lowclass people do not even take the time to listen to the little bells going off in their head that is telling them what they arehearing is sometimes in fact most of the time is DOCTORED. People can't change their height and change their personalities and situations don't change just to make some ridiculous vicious tape to send someone to make them hate Obama. For instance if Mrs. Obama is suddenly 6 inches shorter than her husband in the video that is your clue you have a false video. People do that. Out of hatred. They would have to say personally where that hatred stems from. I am sure is it different with each individual.
This election has been very enlightening to me. As a former republican it makes me wonder what crap have I believed in the past and what hatred has that party instilled in me still. I agree that God hates abortion, even homosexual activity , but he also HATES lying and bearing false witness, spreading discord and hatred throughout our nation. Do you hear that Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity? And the rest. You don't have to agree with what people do. They have a right to do and take the consequences accordingly. But that also applies to how you treats other, especially, especially your president and you will certainly answer when you tell disgusting lie after lie after lie and in the meantime get millions of others to believe those lies. It is clearly stated. And one thing is not one bit more important that the other. Read the Bible and then weep! Of course you can be forgiven but first you have to realize what you have to be forgiven for. Hatred and what stemps from it is NOT A VIRTUE!
I am so tired of the liberal one sided media. Let me ask all you "busness" liberals out there one question. Why is the auto industry so special? What about all the airlines and other industries that are suffering? The airlines are hurting so bad ever since 9/11 and since Obummer took office fuel prices are sky high. WHAT about them??? Romney is right, they should have gone thru bankrupcy. Why should my tax dollars be used to bail out one industry when so many others are suffering too? All Obummer knows how to do is buy the vote. Obummer has NO business sense. All his stimulus money sure paid off now didn't it! What about Solindra? This guy is destroying our country one day at a time. If you think borrowing $4B a day from China is a good idea then you need to go back to Econ 101 and get a clue!
you need to check other news sources for real and true information.
ROMNEY/RYAN 2012
The auto industry isn't special, but how many MILLIONs of jobs would have been lost if it had completely collasped? If Obama had let the auto industry collapse, your rightes would have blamed him for that and the rise in unemployment.
The airlines also have filed for bankruptcy protection the same way BAIN did under R$MNEY. Why can R$MNEY collect bankruptcy and corrupt welfare, but no one else can? Fuel prices DOUBLED during the BUSH years and never came back down. The GOP and their Oil Cronies got us USED To paying more for fuel and they LIKE it this way. Period.
Oh yes, Solyndra.... What about SENSATA? ROMNEY and his BAIN CRONIES own it 51% or more of this company. Right now, they are exporting those jobs from Illinois back to CHINA. yeah, what about that?
Obama is saving this country, 1 civil right at a time.
Obama/Biden 2012.
anybody who votes for robme in ohio are closet polygamist , unthankful , and racist. if not all , surely there is a shoe that fits !!!!!!!!
Why would the folks in Ohio vote for Romney to outsource their jobs?
Case in point - Sensata
yeah because GE isn't outsourcing jobs heck even Obama is allowing GE whose CEO is part of his administration out source jobs to china what about all the american green energy companies that are out sourcing jobs maybe you ought to do a little research instead of just repeating talking points.
Be specific, show documentation.
Right on...
Mitt's presidential dream is going to be run over by an American car... Go Ohio!
I lived in the Ohio Valley for 15 years. We watched as manufacturing jobs left in record numbers and went to China. All with the GOP support and a tax credit for doing so. R$mney's economic policies cannot bring those jobs back period and would end up costing Ohioans even more.
Obama/Biden 2012
Does anyone believe for ONE SECOND that a man that has done what Mitt Romney has done and continues to do every day even has a remote possibility of being president? And add it Paul Ryan. If they do win or even come close think of what that says about America and where is has fallen. I guess people think you can lie, and changing what you said yesterday or last week, and saying something different today is a lie if you don't have an explanation or reason for it. They believe anything anyone sends them or they look up on the internet no matter how disgusting. And worst of all it is like they are in a trance and don't think. When someone argues and does not have a basis or an ounce of truth to back it up they are in a trance. And I do not believe America has fallen that low yet. HOpefully many are just keeping quiet because they know if they say something they will be attacked by vicious right wingers especially teabaggers. God Bless America while he still can.
Vaca: Airlines hurting,that's way too funny in the wake of American Airlines hiring 2,500 more pilots-Yeah,they are hiring,that's really bad news !!! As for the bail out,both Romney and Ryan took some of that bail out money,or did you forget about that ????
Up until the repubtards realized how important the auto bailout was to Ohio, they slammed Obama for it. How terrible an idea to bail out the auto industry. I heard countless GOPbaggers saying things like "the auto industry should have failed like the airlines do, like any other company that fails". Now, it's a different story. It's Oh no, Mitt wanted the gov to be involved.
In other words, Romney now says that the bailout should have happened but happened with money that didn't exist and then the gov would simply back those funds. Except not one single company would step up. So Obama saved the auto industry. Now it's biting mit in the @ss and he's backpeddling. Simple as that.
One point often ignored by the pundits is that the reach of the auto industry is much greater than most, if not all other industries in America. Letting "Detroit go bankrupt" would have a supply chain effect all over this country. The people of not just Ohio, but every other state with ties to the auto industry understand that and wont forget it in the election.
Obama didn't bail out GM, the American taxpayers did and soon GM will be asking for more or going bankrupt.
But it was President Obama's decision. The first bailout money was ordered up by former President Bush about a month before he left office.
GM going bankrupt soon? Where do you get your news? GM is showing record profits and paying back the loan on time. You didn't know that? AND...ALL presidents spend taxpayers dollars; that is NOT news! Haters, haters, haters!
Right on...
NO the auto bail out does not haunt Romney in Ohio - he is only concerned because it will cause him to lose the election - he does not give a rats behind about the people he would have hurt if he had done it his way -so give me a break - he is a self serving ego maniac with multiple personalities
Well put. I try to look at things objectively even though I'm a liberal. I do give republican candidates the benefit of possibility. However, my true feelings about Romney that are shaped by watching him talk, looking at his policies and his history on this planet, are that he simply want's to be president for self gratification. He doesn't come across as a public servant who is concerned with helping America. He seems simply interested in WINNING. Nothing more. I believe this is backed up by his constant flip flopping on issues to appeal to whoever he thinks will help him win. He has no real beliefs in terms of what he's fighting for. He seems simply in it to win because he want's another feather in his cap.
For you guys that keep definding Romney and deny what he is doing or has said and done, it like trying to get someone deprogrammed from a cult. They love the cult and refuse to believe anything counter to the glory and wonder of the cult. Of course he said he would let the car companies go bankrupt. Of course they said that Obama and the country should fail. I clearly remember billboard signs going up responding to Limbaughs push for failure. They said failure is not an option. You have no excuse to not remember that or not remember what Romney said. YOu have no excuse for not checking out the articles that he himself wrote on an UNBIASED SOURCE. Of course Fox News wants you to believe what they want you to believe. Wake up and get out of the cult. America is not a cult! And I guess you should just realize that President Obama is not the bad guy here. Romney is because of what he has actually done and is now doing with this money and our country! Period. Most of the stuff you guys whine about is abstract or what oBAMA he will do someday. We need to go on what Romney really HAS DONE!
ktlin60....Do you understand what it means to take a company into bankruptcy? By your comments, you do not...
GM was taken into bankruptcy and the current creditors got axed with the balance being turned over to the unions.
In a normal bankruptcy, the company and it's debt is restructured, leading to a stronger company coming out of bankruptcy.
Obama broke the law by how he bailed out GM. He went against our normal bankruptcy laws....That should concern you.
What Romney did was propose bankruptcy, using private investors and he also recommended that the government support the restructuring with loan guarantees (no government investment).
Instead we the taxpayer are stuck with over $50 billion in debt that we will not get back...
But then again when did facts get in the way of liberal rhetoric?
Your the one who does not understand Bankruptcy. I am a bankruptcy lawyer. No company can go into a Chapter 11 Bankruptcy without financing, it is the kiss of death. That is Chapter 11 Bankruptcy 101. There was no financing available in late 2008 - 2009, None-do you understand. GM and Chrysler would have been immediately converted to a Chapter 7 liquidation and that would have been the end of the American car industry. Ford would have crumbled within months. All of the suppliers throughtout the world would also have crumbled. Why do you think the first money to the car industry was approved by Bush in December 2008.
Quite confusing the liberals with facts and truth... it messes with their talking points... What was it that Vladimir Lenin called them? Oh yeah, "the useful idiots".
I also find the comment "and what he does with his money" shows a high degree of envy....not a good trait.
But for the record, it is his money that he earned by working hard and making smart investments.
Just like you could.
Lastly, do you have an issue with Romney contributing several million dollars (over 14% of his earnings) to charitable organizations?
That is truly phenomenal in today's world. And guess what...it is his money..
Obama and Biden....contributed less than 1% of theirs....
Their philosophy...charity is ok as long as it is someone elses money....Sad....Sad....Sad.....
The entire republican party has done everything possible to tank our economy over the past 4 year in the hopes of winning this Presidential election. McConnell admitted as much in the spring of 2009. It is not secret. They would not pass any legislation to help with job creation or job preservation. Miraculously President Obama has helped reduce unemployment from over 10% to 7.8% and dropping in just a little more than 3 years and prevented us from falling into a very deep depression. Vote Obama!
The Bush administration provided "bridge loans", not unfettered funding.
As a bankruptcy lawyer, you had to be just livid that the Obama administration ignored our nations bankruptcy laws....
If not, then you are part of the problem, not the solution.
As for your latest comment, do you realize that the House has sent over 31 jobs bills to the Senate that are being blocked from vote by Harry Reid? Wait a minute, Reid is a Democrat.
By your comment, I would guess not....
Might be a good idea to watch some other news shows and do your own research to find "the truth and whole truth".
Also, do you also realize that the true unemployment number is over 11% (over 14% in black communities).
The 7.8% is due to the large number of people who have left the workforce.
We have the fewest number of people participating in the workforce for decades....
That is not an accomplishment.
What do you mean Obama ignored our bankruptcy laws. There have not been any major pieces of legislation pending in Congress over the past 4 years except giving Bankruptcy Judges the power to restructure home mortgage loans and the republican's filibustered that legislation 4 times. The unemployment is measured the same now as before when Clinton, Bush, Reagan were president. I am glad you admit the Bush administration granted the car industry the first loans, you can call them "bridge loans" but a loan is a loan is a loan. The house "jobs bills" are just bills to cut taxes for the very rich, they aren't jobs bills. Get a clue.
You do realize that in every major recession in the past it was cutting taxes that allowed all of us to keep more of our hard earned money in our pocket to spend as we choose that created 1-2 year recoveries and generated millions of jobs?
You do realize that even John F. Kennedy took this action.....
Japan is just now recovering from their "lost decade" post a deep recession they had. History shows their decision on how to recover created that slow and precarious recovery....
Obama made the virtually the same decisions and here we are, well on our way to a "lost decade" for the U.S.
Not acceptable......
How convenient that MSNBC left out that the Detroit News endorsed Mitt Romney for President as the candidate even while complimenting Obama on the "saving the auto companies" (except for Ford who took no bailout money) but went on to say that Romney was the best choice for getting the nation back on track..
To all of you who get your news from MSNBC, are you ok with an organization that does not report the news but provides you with far left liberal rhetoric?
I am not....
Report the whole news and I will make up my own mind on how it impacts me!
Why do you ignore the fact that Ford strongly supported the bailout money to GM and Chrysler. They knew their existence was tied to the entire industry.
Didn't ignore that fact.....
Only admire their position on not taking it.
Besides, don't you think strategically Ford knew that the issues that led GM and Chrysler to that point would not be solved and Ford would come out as the stronger company with more sustainability? Absolutely!
Nope the opposite is true. Without GM and Chrysler there would be no parts industry. There would be no Ford.
On his first full day, Obama froze White House salaries.
Willard has not and will not do anything for the middle class, just ask the latest victims about Bain Captial in Freeport Illinois, for those who insist that Romney has nothing to do with that, of course not. The man is trying to run for president and he needs your vote, go figure.
Obama/Biden 2012
Obama oversaw the creation of more jobs in 2010 alone than Bush did in
eight years.
http://bit.ly/hrrnjY
Gimme some of what you are smoking and let me catch up to you...
Under Bush, before the libs took over the house and senate, unemployment was 4.9%... It is 7.8% under Obama... What you say makes zero sense. The math "doesn't add up!"
Under Hussein, unemployment is not 7.8%. But keep believing that BS. Obama is a bullsh1$$er
We have fewer people participating in the workforce than for decades....read the Bureau of Labor Statistics data.
The real unemployment is over 11% when you include those that have stopped looking (they are not counted).
And finally ladies and gentlemen, 8% is not the new norm....7.8%, 11%, whatever it is, is not acceptable!
Living in Dayton, Ohio...there is an empty GM assembly plant in Moraine, Ohio just next to Dayton. Despite the 2009 auto bail out, GM shut down that plant in December 2008 because of the UAW. However, it was not until the 2009 government bankruptcy under President Obama, that the UAW negotiated the jobs from that plant here in Ohio as part of that government bail out. The result was that 2,500 laid-off GM auto workers from Moraine, Ohio were barred from future auto work after it closed.
It was later the subject of a HBO short documentary, The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant.
The GM assembly plant closed for good. Despite being one of GM's most productive and cooperative factories, Moraine was closed following the company's 2007 labor pact with the United Auto Workers union. Under a deal struck by the UAW during GM's bankruptcy two years later, Moraine's 2,500 laid-off workers were barred from transferring to other plants, locking them out of the industry's rebound.
The trouble with Moraine: Its workers weren't in the UAW.
"We did everything we could to keep that plant open and keep our jobs," said Mitchell Wood, a 44-year-old father of two who used to attach tailgates onto sport-utility vehicles at Moraine. "But in the end, we didn't have a chance, not being in the UAW."
The plight of Moraine workers highlights the extraordinary role played by the UAW during the near-collapses and bankruptcy reorganizations of GM and Chrysler Group LLC.
Moraine workers could apply for a job at another GM plant, but would be treated as new hires, receiving half the wages of their old jobs and getting at the end of the line behind applications recommended by the UAW.
In the end, "we had to take care of our own members," says Cal Rapson, the former UAW vice president leading negotiations with GM. "It was unfortunate what happened to the others. But there wasn't enough to go around."
Moraine's workers got nothing in the bankruptcy deal. Their plant, which had closed months earlier, was ultimately sold to a developer. The workers were barred from transfers to UAW plants, as were thousands of others who had worked for Delphi Corp., GM's former parts arm.
So no matter what this article says, it was the UAW under the terms of the GM government bailout (under President Obama) that negotiated for and ultimately lost 2500 jobs in this part of Ohio in 2009. That is a fact.
Moraine Mayor Elaine Allison said, "No one single tenant will be moving in to use this 4-million-square-foot facility. We are looking at several tenants and may cut up the facility in order to bring in multiple businesses."
The news article from the Wall Street Journal which these excerpts are from is here:
UAW Freezes Moraine Ohio Rival Out of Rebound